Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Glassing The Hull

I ignored my own advice to do the time-consuming jobs on a "day off", and started this task at 7:30 a.m, on a Work Day (due at 12:00). I almost got done in time, but not quite, had to ditch work. 
Did I mention before, that I don't really like fiberglass work? ;) Having carefully read and re-read all the instructions, I still got shiny spots (too much glue), drips, runs, and strands of 'glass pulled off the pieces. At least I got it well-saturated, with few or no dry spots.
I did have to cut a dart at the stern, despite the instructions' promise that I wouldn't have to. I was able to form the 'glass around the curve, and it stayed that way until I "did anything", and by the time I got to it with glue, I had to cut. I still think I got it done o.k.
Starting to run low on epoxy. My kit came with enough materials for a "perfect world" job, but not enough for do-overs & screwups.
Copper Wire: Not enough, had to buy more
Wood Flour: Plenty. Almost a whole container left
Epoxy:Enough for  a perfect job, done by an expert. Need more
Fiberglass. Plenty.All pieces cut with a couple of yards to spare. Cutting remnants come in handy .
Silica Powder: Plenty, since I plan on using wood flour to thicken the epoxy when I glue on the cockpit coaming.

Two days later, I realized that there is definitely an art to applying  epoxy on fiberglass, and that I don't know it yet. I think I generally applied too much glue to the fabric, and I created waves. Laboriously & ruthlessly sanding them out with a belt sander.

No comments:

Post a Comment